Poe, Edgar Allen - The Complete Works of Edgar Allen Poe

by Volume 01-05 (lit)

  its graceful body, at an angle of nearly forty-five degrees, far out

  into the sunshine of the amphitheatre. About thirty yards east of

  this tree stood, however, the pride of the valley, and beyond all

  question the most magnificent tree I have ever seen, unless, perhaps,

  among the cypresses of the Itchiatuckanee. It was a triple -- stemmed

  tulip-tree -- the Liriodendron Tulipiferum -- one of the natural

  order of magnolias. Its three trunks separated from the parent at

  about three feet from the soil, and diverging very slightly and

  gradually, were not more than four feet apart at the point where the

  largest stem shot out into foliage: this was at an elevation of about

  eighty feet. The whole height of the principal division was one

  hundred and twenty feet. Nothing can surpass in beauty the form, or

  the glossy, vivid green of the leaves of the tulip-tree. In the

  present instance they were fully eight inches wide; but their glory

  was altogether eclipsed by the gorgeous splendor of the profuse

  blossoms. Conceive, closely congregated, a million of the largest and

  most resplendent tulips! Only thus can the reader get any idea of the

  picture I would convey. And then the stately grace of the clean,

  delicately -- granulated columnar stems, the largest four feet in

  diameter, at twenty from the ground. The innumerable blossoms,

  mingling with those of other trees scarcely less beautiful, although

  infinitely less majestic, filled the valley with more than Arabian

  perfumes.

  The general floor of the amphitheatre was grass of the same character

  as that I had found in the road; if anything, more deliciously soft,

  thick, velvety, and miraculously green. It was hard to conceive how

  all this beauty had been attained.

  I have spoken of two openings into the vale. From the one to the

  northwest issued a rivulet, which came, gently murmuring and slightly

  foaming, down the ravine, until it dashed against the group of rocks

  out of which sprang the insulated hickory. Here, after encircling the

  tree, it passed on a little to the north of east, leaving the tulip

  tree some twenty feet to the south, and making no decided alteration

  in its course until it came near the midway between the eastern and

  western boundaries of the valley. At this point, after a series of

  sweeps, it turned off at right angles and pursued a generally

  southern direction meandering as it went -- until it became lost in a

  small lake of irregular figure (although roughly oval), that lay

  gleaming near the lower extremity of the vale. This lakelet was,

  perhaps, a hundred yards in diameter at its widest part. No crystal

  could be clearer than its waters. Its bottom, which could be

  distinctly seen, consisted altogether, of pebbles brilliantly white.

  Its banks, of the emerald grass already described, rounded, rather

  than sloped, off into the clear heaven below; and so clear was this

  heaven, so perfectly, at times, did it reflect all objects above it,

  that where the true bank ended and where the mimic one commenced, it

  was a point of no little difficulty to determine. The trout, and some

  other varieties of fish, with which this pond seemed to be almost

  inconveniently crowded, had all the appearance of veritable

  flying-fish. It was almost impossible to believe that they were not

  absolutely suspended in the air. A light birch canoe that lay

  placidly on the water, was reflected in its minutest fibres with a

  fidelity unsurpassed by the most exquisitely polished mirror. A small

  island, fairly laughing with flowers in full bloom, and affording

  little more space than just enough for a picturesque little building,

  seemingly a fowl-house -- arose from the lake not far from its

  northern shore -- to which it was connected by means of an

  inconceivably light -- looking and yet very primitive bridge. It was

  formed of a single, broad and thick plank of the tulip wood. This was

  forty feet long, and spanned the interval between shore and shore

  with a slight but very perceptible arch, preventing all oscillation.

  From the southern extreme of the lake issued a continuation of the

  rivulet, which, after meandering for, perhaps, thirty yards, finally

  passed through the "depression" (already described) in the middle of

  the southern declivity, and tumbling down a sheer precipice of a

  hundred feet, made its devious and unnoticed way to the Hudson.

  The lake was deep -- at some points thirty feet -- but the rivulet

  seldom exceeded three, while its greatest width was about eight. Its

  bottom and banks were as those of the pond -- if a defect could have

  been attributed, in point of picturesqueness, it was that of

  excessive neatness.

  The expanse of the green turf was relieved, here and there, by an

  occasional showy shrub, such as the hydrangea, or the common

  snowball, or the aromatic seringa; or, more frequently, by a clump of

  geraniums blossoming gorgeously in great varieties. These latter grew

  in pots which were carefully buried in the soil, so as to give the

  plants the appearance of being indigenous. Besides all this, the

  lawn's velvet was exquisitely spotted with sheep -- a considerable

  flock of which roamed about the vale, in company with three tamed

  deer, and a vast number of brilliantly -- plumed ducks. A very large

  mastiff seemed to be in vigilant attendance upon these animals, each

  and all.

  Along the eastern and western cliffs -- where, toward the upper

  portion of the amphitheatre, the boundaries were more or less

  precipitous -- grew ivy in great profusion -- so that only here and

  there could even a glimpse of the naked rock be obtained. The

  northern precipice, in like manner, was almost entirely clothed by

  grape-vines of rare luxuriance; some springing from the soil at the

  base of the cliff, and others from ledges on its face.

  The slight elevation which formed the lower boundary of this little

  domain, was crowned by a neat stone wall, of sufficient height to

  prevent the escape of the deer. Nothing of the fence kind was

  observable elsewhere; for nowhere else was an artificial enclosure

  needed: -- any stray sheep, for example, which should attempt to make

  its way out of the vale by means of the ravine, would find its

  progress arrested, after a few yards' advance, by the precipitous

  ledge of rock over which tumbled the cascade that had arrested my

  attention as I first drew near the domain. In short, the only ingress

  or egress was through a gate occupying a rocky pass in the road, a

  few paces below the point at which I stopped to reconnoitre the

  scene.

  I have described the brook as meandering very irregularly through the

  whole of its course. Its two general directions, as I have said, were

  first from west to east, and then from north to south. At the turn,

  the stream, sweeping backward, made an almost circular loop, so as to

  form a peninsula which was very nearly an island, and which included

  about the sixteenth of an acre. On this peninsula stood a

  dwelling-house -- and when I say that this house, like the inf
ernal

  terrace seen by Vathek, "etait d'une architecture inconnue dans les

  annales de la terre," I mean, merely, that its tout ensemble struck

  me with the keenest sense of combined novelty and propriety -- in a

  word, of poetry -- (for, than in the words just employed, I could

  scarcely give, of poetry in the abstract, a more rigorous definition)

  -- and I do not mean that merely outre was perceptible in any

  respect.

  In fact nothing could well be more simple -- more utterly

  unpretending than this cottage. Its marvellous effect lay altogether

  in its artistic arrangement as a picture. I could have fancied, while

  I looked at it, that some eminent landscape-painter had built it with

  his brush.

  The point of view from which I first saw the valley, was not

  altogether, although it was nearly, the best point from which to

  survey the house. I will therefore describe it as I afterwards saw it

  -- from a position on the stone wall at the southern extreme of the

  amphitheatre.

  The main building was about twenty-four feet long and sixteen broad

  -- certainly not more. Its total height, from the ground to the apex

  of the roof, could not have exceeded eighteen feet. To the west end

  of this structure was attached one about a third smaller in all its

  proportions: -- the line of its front standing back about two yards

  from that of the larger house, and the line of its roof, of course,

  being considerably depressed below that of the roof adjoining. At

  right angles to these buildings, and from the rear of the main one --

  not exactly in the middle -- extended a third compartment, very small

  -- being, in general, one-third less than the western wing. The roofs

  of the two larger were very steep -- sweeping down from the

  ridge-beam with a long concave curve, and extending at least four

  feet beyond the walls in front, so as to form the roofs of two

  piazzas. These latter roofs, of course, needed no support; but as

  they had the air of needing it, slight and perfectly plain pillars

  were inserted at the corners alone. The roof of the northern wing was

  merely an extension of a portion of the main roof. Between the chief

  building and western wing arose a very tall and rather slender square

  chimney of hard Dutch bricks, alternately black and red: -- a slight

  cornice of projecting bricks at the top. Over the gables the roofs

  also projected very much: -- in the main building about four feet to

  the east and two to the west. The principal door was not exactly in

  the main division, being a little to the east -- while the two

  windows were to the west. These latter did not extend to the floor,

  but were much longer and narrower than usual -- they had single

  shutters like doors -- the panes were of lozenge form, but quite

  large. The door itself had its upper half of glass, also in lozenge

  panes -- a movable shutter secured it at night. The door to the west

  wing was in its gable, and quite simple -- a single window looked out

  to the south. There was no external door to the north wing, and it

  also had only one window to the east.

  The blank wall of the eastern gable was relieved by stairs (with a

  balustrade) running diagonally across it -- the ascent being from the

  south. Under cover of the widely projecting eave these steps gave

  access to a door leading to the garret, or rather loft -- for it was

  lighted only by a single window to the north, and seemed to have been

  intended as a store-room.

  The piazzas of the main building and western wing had no floors, as

  is usual; but at the doors and at each window, large, flat irregular

  slabs of granite lay imbedded in the delicious turf, affording

  comfortable footing in all weather. Excellent paths of the same

  material -- not nicely adapted, but with the velvety sod filling

  frequent intervals between the stones, led hither and thither from

  the house, to a crystal spring about five paces off, to the road, or

  to one or two out -- houses that lay to the north, beyond the brook,

  and were thoroughly concealed by a few locusts and catalpas.

  Not more than six steps from the main door of the cottage stood the

  dead trunk of a fantastic pear-tree, so clothed from head to foot in

  the gorgeous bignonia blossoms that one required no little scrutiny

  to determine what manner of sweet thing it could be. From various

  arms of this tree hung cages of different kinds. In one, a large

  wicker cylinder with a ring at top, revelled a mocking bird; in

  another an oriole; in a third the impudent bobolink -- while three or

  four more delicate prisons were loudly vocal with canaries.

  The pillars of the piazza were enwreathed in jasmine and sweet

  honeysuckle; while from the angle formed by the main structure and

  its west wing, in front, sprang a grape-vine of unexampled

  luxuriance. Scorning all restraint, it had clambered first to the

  lower roof -- then to the higher; and along the ridge of this latter

  it continued to writhe on, throwing out tendrils to the right and

  left, until at length it fairly attained the east gable, and fell

  trailing over the stairs.

  The whole house, with its wings, was constructed of the old-fashioned

  Dutch shingles -- broad, and with unrounded corners. It is a

  peculiarity of this material to give houses built of it the

  appearance of being wider at bottom than at top -- after the manner

  of Egyptian architecture; and in the present instance, this

  exceedingly picturesque effect was aided by numerous pots of gorgeous

  flowers that almost encompassed the base of the buildings.

  The shingles were painted a dull gray; and the happiness with which

  this neutral tint melted into the vivid green of the tulip tree

  leaves that partially overshadowed the cottage, can readily be

  conceived by an artist.

  From the position near the stone wall, as described, the buildings

  were seen at great advantage -- for the southeastern angle was thrown

  forward -- so that the eye took in at once the whole of the two

  fronts, with the picturesque eastern gable, and at the same time

  obtained just a sufficient glimpse of the northern wing, with parts

  of a pretty roof to the spring-house, and nearly half of a light

  bridge that spanned the brook in the near vicinity of the main

  buildings.

  I did not remain very long on the brow of the hill, although long

  enough to make a thorough survey of the scene at my feet. It was